Today’s shot comes from a June 2016 family camping trip and features the arsenal that a fishing family packs along to keep everyone rigged and ready. A dozen poles in total ranging from ultralight to medium heavy action, including spincast, spinning and baitcasting setups, advertising superheroes and television stars and covering over 30 years of purchases.

The eight lighter action panfish rigs mean that we’ve got a backup for each of the four kids or at least a spare or two for Mom and Dad to join the fun in the unlikely event that we aren’t rebaiting jigheads, cleaning off moss or unhooking fish. These poles include Batman, Superman, Hannah Montana and Lady Shakespeare as well as three of my spinning rigs that date back to the 90s.

2008 – Helena with one of our stubby starter poles

2011 – Carly birthday upgrade and got a “grown up” upgrade last year

2011- Zac gets his first fishing pole from Papa, just like his three older siblings

The heavier end of this dozen consists of some bass fishing gear for my early morning camping trip getaways to chase some bass. And for this outing, I actually pared down my gear to four poles instead of the usual seven that I cram into that old eight foot johnboat.

However, the star of this collection for me is an old spincast setup from 1984 which was the first pole I could call mine. Previously, I’d been just fine using one of Dad’s Mitchell spinning rigs from the 60s or whatever else he had in the shed. Cool thing is, my old rod and reel still reels ‘em as my boy, Jayce, put it to good use just last year.

2017 – Jayce goes old school with his Dad’s pole from the 80’s, lived this scenario myself back in the day.

And there’s even more as we left a couple others at home, no longer use our collection of stubby beginner poles and Carly has since added her own hand-picked spinning rig as a birthday gift last year. Oh yeah, there’s also a couple dusty muskie poles stashed in the rafters of Dad’s garage. And, believe it or not, I just bought four more poles a couple weekends ago, the short ice fishing variety as my boy, Jayce, has his eye on this pursuit after watching some YouTube with me this winter.

Pretty crazy what a fisherman and his family rack up over the years but you can never have enough fishing gear, right? Talk to you later. Troy

This is one of those pictures that is custom made for the banner as it perfectly represents the “fur, family, fun and foolishness” aspects that are offered up in the tagline above. So, let’s dig a little deeper into the specifics of those items for today’s posting.

Fur – For these two boys, this 2013 trapping trip is a success as they’ve got what they’re after in terms of their quarry. And they get to be a hands on part of the pursuit in observing the techniques, seeing the results and helping handle the catch. Firsthand experience and an opportunity to create their own tales to be revisited as the years pass.

Family – These two boys, a pair of my folks’ eight grandkids, are my son, Jayce, and my nephew, Brady (my brother Brent’s boy). In the banner photo and the bonus pics included in this post, they are hanging out with Papa, Brent and myself. A great way to spend some time together with a dose of fresh air and plenty of the next two items which often go hand in hand when the youngsters tag along (or even if they don’t).

Fun and Foolishness – It’s always a full day of both of these aspects from the moment we buckle up in the truck to head out until we get back home (or some folks fall asleep on the ride). Tales of anticipation on the ride, goofing off over breakfast, flipping bellies on hilly country roads and the natural distractions that lie between each potential catch are all winners. Among the distractions are sticks that are weapons, stumps, weeds and bushes that are foes and the always appealing hedgeball. Throw in a pond and the hedgeball collection becomes even more appealing as its bombs away. The hedgeball in the hoodie trick was also rather entertaining with this pair as they laughed away while darn near knocking themselves out. Tough to beat fun in the great outdoors.

And yes, the big people have been known to launch a few hedgeballs as well over the years. Kind of steer clear of the whole hood deal though. Talk to you later. Troy

Today’s photo  from September of 2014 represents an important part of fishing, that whole “you just never know” factor when having a bait or lure in the water. While many offerings are cast about with the intention of nabbing a specific species, anything goes in this crazy pursuit.

Of course, a number of lures indeed have a bit of an overlap in regards to what species may take a liking.  So, even though my primary target is the largemouth bass, it is not completely unexpected when something toothy winds up on the end of the line at a few of my fishing holes. Yet, those bites are rare enough that they still qualify as a pleasant surprise.

These catches are what I have long called “accidents.” And the photo album contains more than a few such mistakes, several of which were actually pretty impressive. Much more impressive than my results when actually setting my sights on targeting muskies or walleye. In the very limited time chasing either of these species I believe I have caught one muskie “on purpose” and could probably count the intentional walleye on one hand.

Rather be lucky than good, I guess, as the pics below attest.

Nope, I was bitten by the bass bug a long, long time ago and see no reason to fight the affliction. “Accidents” happen and always a treat to have one of those toothy critters crash the party as no lure is safe once it enters their domain. Talk to you later. Troy

The shot above features my log entries to start the 1997 season. That year featured a new wrinkle as I elected to include some wildlife observation as well. And while that feature was rather short lived, the logging habit has persisted for many years. It began back in 1985 and continues to this day with only a few lost years in the 90s.

1/19/1985 – How’s this for my stat keeping debut as me and Dad catch zero fish icefishing at Lake Bracken? That was actually hard to do.

As a lifelong sports fan and a participant for more than a few years back when I could do that sort of thing, stats have always held a fascination for this fisherman. In fact, there was a time when “Stat” was part of a nickname bestowed upon me by a handful of “friends.”

Although I hung up my sneakers after high school, I still ran with a number of the basketball crowd while attending Knox College. And freshman year, I found myself recruited by a baseball teammate to assist with stat keeping duties for the Siwash (since renamed Prairie Fire) men’s and women’s basketball teams. As a result, several of those basketball buddies honored me with the designation of “Stat Boy.” I suspected that they were poking fun at me at the time, a suspicion which has been confirmed over the years. Of course, all in good fun and still brings a laugh.

However, I have to believe that I am getting the last laugh as my propensity for stat keeping translates nicely into this whole outdoor blogging habit. As such, I think it’s high time that I take up the mantle of “Stat Man.” After all, I now have a cool blog that can be read by fellow outdoor (and stat) enthusiasts around the globe.

And now all eight or ten of you who actually read it know the rest of the story behind selecting the 1997 log shot to grace the blog banner.

Hope to keep the stats rolling in the latest log book. I’ll keep you posted.

Talk to you later.  Troy

My daughter, Carly, has turned into quite an angler over the course of her eleven years. Along with her skills while wielding a rod and reel, she is also a dedicated sort as without fail she outlasts her siblings when our bunch goes out casting. And she is one of those anglers who just seems to have a knack for fooling a variety of fish.

Today’s photo from June 2016 displays her propensity for fooling redear sunfish which are generally pickier than their cousin, the cooperative bluegill. Hard to explain when the rest of us are in close proximity and tossing the same waxworm on a slip bobber setup and being completely ignored by the redear, but that’s fishing.

August 2015 with a redear hybrid variation

It’s cool too as she routinely claims the species title including a Grand Slam sort of limit last spring during an hour of casting from the bank with her siblings. Her haul consisted of bluegill, crappie, largemouth bass and a green sunfish. While no redear on that occasion, I suspect if we’d had more time one would have shown up to extend the species count.

June 2017, not redear but the fact that it is dark and we’re the last two on the bank says it all

But no matter what the catch it’s always enjoyable to spend time together pursuing a shared hobby. The following excerpts from the original post detailing an August 2015 outing sum it all up quite well.

“I had planned to go on a solo bass trip that particular morning while the rest of the crew slept off a late night of tacos in a bag and s’mores around the campfire. But at 5:30am, as I rolled around out of the tent, I was met by Julie and our youngest daughter, Carly, who was interested in accompanying Dad on the water.

While a nine year old girl and her forty eight year old dad’s interests are sometimes separated by the traditional generation gap, during those few hours in the wild we were right in tune. An ‘experienced’ outdoorsman, an eager pupil and the natural backdrop were a perfect combination.”

An early 2017 birthday gift that she picked out and put to work so she no longer needs to borrow one of my “ancient” spinning rigs 

Looking forward to more in 2018 as she’s got her eyes on adding a new species to her list, one with whiskers. Stay tuned and talk to you later. Troy